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Heirlooms Inside

I just wrote a page and a half about what heirloom weapons are and where they came from. Then I deleted it.

You’re welcome.

If you play the game, you already know. If you don’t, I doubt if you really care about the details.

Last Sunday before our scheduled Mythic raid we knocked off Garrosh on heroic mode from our previously saved run to get everyone who went the previous Wednesday an Heirloom.

Since then, we’ve killed Garrosh on heroic… oh, just a few more times.

Since time is getting short on doing this before the expansion is released, I wanted to make sure my friends knew about this and how it’s being done. I think Blizzard is specifically fine with it as well, based on one hotfix that went out that seemed to have no point other than making SURE this system worked the way I’m going to describe. I’m talking about the raid leader lockout hotfix.

Here you go. This is what my raid leader and other members of the Mythic team had heard of and worked out the details to, a method of allowing a raid team to perform chain runs killing Garrosh with the same characters.

The way this works right now is as follows.

One character, who I shall call the Keeper of the Key, raids and kills all the heroic (or normal) SoO bosses through Paragons of the Klaxxi. Then that character is put aside as the keeper of the raid ID keys.

When your raid team is ready to begin chain running Garrosh, the Keeper of the lockout Key is the one that begins the raid. They are the raid leader, they invite the other players into the raid team, they make absolutely certain the group is converted to a raid and set to the correct difficulty, and then and ONLY then the Keeper of the Key and ONLY that character enters the instance first and verifies that it is on his lockout and everything prior to the trash before Garrosh is already dead.

Once that is checked out and correct, everyone else in the raid can zone in.

Once other people are in the raid instance, the original Keeper of the Key can make everyone else assist so invites can continue to go out, and he can hearth out or take a portal, whatever so long as he leaves the instance. Then the Keeper of the Key must LOG OFF.

Still in the raid group, just outside and offline.

I want to say that again. The keeper of the key is still in the raid group, but is out of the instance and offline. That player can now switch to another character, get invited into the raid group and zone on in.

The raid instance is now full of people who can kill Garrosh without any of the earlier bosses, and the original Keeper of the Key character will NOT have a Garrosh kill recorded. He will still have a valid and usable raid lockout available.

The raid group kill the trash mobs, kills Garrosh, and gets their chance at loot. Use bonus rolls, etc.

Once Garrosh is dead, everyone must physically leave the raid instance. This is important, because it’s got to be reset.

The offline Keeper of the Key character logs back in, resets the instance, and it begins all over again.

Keeper of the Key walks into the reset instance, verifies that it’s right back at Garrosh trash again, the other members of the raid team walk back in, he hearths and logs off, and the cycle begins anew.

Yes. I’m telling you that you can currently chain kill Garrosh on heroic or normal difficulty over and over, as many times as your raid team can stand it, and as long as your Keeper of the Key works it just right each time.

Now, why the big deal about saving the lockout? Who cares? It’s only your first kill of Garrosh without having had an heirloom before that gives you that 100% drop chance.

It is true you only get one shot at normal Garrosh loot once a week, per character per kill.

HOWEVER.

The heirloom drops are proven by us to be on a separate loot roll from normal ‘once a week’ loot. Every single time you kill Garrosh in the same week, that extra roll for a bonus chance at an heirloom weapon happens. Trust me on this, in the last week of chain killing heroic Garrosh I have seen a LOT of people getting heirlooms.

Also, and this is nice if there is still loot you want from Garrosh (like the Tier tokens you can turn in to pick the specific Tier piece you want) you can still use a Warforged Seal bonus roll every kill.

I know that the plate Mannoroth Shoulders are an insanely rare drop from Garrosh, and our main tank Monstre has been trying to get them since the first kill, and bonus rolling every time. No shoulders have ever dropped for our raid group. They haven’t dropped once. I know we’re committed to running this damn thing until he’s got them, or we pass out.

So, reasons.

I am still unclear if you can get an Heirloom off of a bonus roll now. Some have said yes, some have said no, all I can say is I haven’t had one myself yet so I don’t know. I personally don’t think so, but with thousands lf Lesser Charms on my main, it doesn’t matter. I’m bonus rolling every kill anyway.

I do know for a fact from my own personal observation that characters that have already killed Garrosh two, three or even four times in one week can get a random Heirloom weapon drop.

That is why to save a Garrosh lockout and to have your raid team spend an evening chain killing the idjit. Every time you kill him, you have a chance to get a random heirloom weapon.

There is also one other reason to chain kill Garrosh.

If most of the raid team is on their mains hoping for an Heirloom drop, there is room for one or two of them to swap to a lesser geared alt. An alt that is guaranteed to get an heirloom weapon appropriate for their loot spec. If you really, really want that one heirloom before the expansion, if the team can accommodate you then you can go in once on that alt and be done with it, switch back to your main and give someone else a shot at the prize.

This event, wonderful as it is proves that I can screw anything up, even this.

Last Monday, the raid team was chain running Garrosh just as I’ve described. The raid leader let me bring in my warrior. My Fury Warrior.

I don’t really intend to play my Warrior that much. I don’t have a burning desire for Warrior weapons. My son, on the other hand, prefers to play his Unholy Death Knight over any other character. And Unholy Death Knights use two handed weapons.

So by the stunned and mostly dead body of Garrosh I was going to get him one.

I was specced Fury on my Warrior… and Fury can get EITHER a one handed OR a two handed weapon drop as that first 100%.

SHIT.

Now, if I had stopped for a moment, did some research and thought about it, I would have remembered that Arms is the only warrior spec that only uses two handed weapons.

There is no excuse for my forgetting you can set your loot spec different from your play spec. None. Just… totally spaced it. Panicked that I wouldn’t switch over to the warrior fast enough? I dunno.

I could have set my loot spec to Arms and gotten the two-handed axe. I just didn’t even think of it. Sweet.

So… basically, my Paladin has a tanking weapon good for leveling as a tank in Draenor? Or my own Frost Death Knight can use one as one of his single-hand weapons. If I played my Frost DK.

Whoops.

So, lesson learned and my warning to you… there are only a few more weeks before all this Garrosh heirloom stuff goes away. And if you do get in and get your kill with a character you’re not used to playing for a chance at a specific heirloom, please make sure you verify you’ve got your loot spec set for the weapon you want.

I consider myself damn lucky. Last night we did some more Garrosh kills, same character and lockout, and this time in the middle of the runs I brought in my son’s actual Death Knight in his actual Unholy spec. God bless my raid team, I don’t want to know what DPS I put out, or more accurately what DPS I didn’t put out.

Oh, and so that no good deed goes unpunished, since I’d been the one killing engineers last night on my main, we wiped because I was on a DK for that run and didn’t mention that someone else would have to take the engineer so IRON STARS LEFT SIDE HANDLE THEM.

We did kill Garrosh, though. My son will now have an Heirloom two-handed axe when he returns to playing his DK.

Until then…. Um.

I, well, I might have sent it to my Retribution Paladin? Just to try it out, you understand. I’m not gonna KEEP it. Oh, no. Just… borrowing it. In fact, if we chain run Garrosh kills again on Sunday, I might bring my Paladin in and with all upgraded gear and the Garrosh Heirloom, I might be decent DPS, so it’s really a help, right? RIGHT? I could get my own two-handed axe and give him back this one, just alittle blood stained and covered with purple goo.

Just because my first step was to transmog, gem and enchant the axe means nothing. I have to look cool, and gems and enchants on Heirlooms now carry over between characters, so it was really for him.

My Paladin will just be keeping it warm for him. Want to make sure it’s sharp, handles well. Wouldn’t want him to get a dodgy sword, now would I?

This post might come off as bragging because I was able to kill Garrosh, and if so I apologize. That’s not what this is about. I think with the way OpenRaid is available and so friendly and active, and the way things have been retuned and with our new gear and flex sized groups, most folks that have geared up from Celestials and LFR might now be able to find a normal Garrosh run and get their kill and an heirloom. And that is even if your normal guild raid team hasn’t managed it yet.

No, I’m certainly not bragging. The people I play with are so freaking good I always feel like I’m being carried no matter how hard I try to play my role properly. I don’t feel that I have anything to brag about, unless it’s how awesome the people I raid with are. Sure, I’ll brag about that. They’re freaking amazing.

What I really want to do was make sure that everyone I know sees the process clearly and has the chance to make use of it with their raid team while there are still a few weeks before the new expansion comes out.

Remember, this works with both Normal and Heroic SoO modes, so if you can try to take advantage of it.

Heirloom weapons are not ‘must have’ items. They’re a convenience. Once we reach level 100 they go away, in favor of real weapons just like the original heirlooms. But they’re still cool, and fun to trade among your lesser-played alts, and if you can get one, I really hope you do.

See? Bigcrankbutt is just keeping that heirloom shiny and warm. Totally just borrowing it.